Prince of ice, p.1
Prince of Ice, page 1
Prince of Ice
Terry Bolryder
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Sample of Awakened Sea Dragons
Chapter 1
Iris Jensen knew it was a little odd to be going into her lab this late at night. It was dark enough that the hallways held a creepy glint beneath the barely flickering florescent lights and quiet enough that her footsteps seemed to echo like someone was following her.
She told herself to stop imagining things and keep focused on her mission: get in some extra hours at the lab and catalog the rest of her samples so she would be one step closer to writing a paper for the research symposium.
Or, in other words, for a woman in a very competitive department, work really damn hard when everyone else has gone to bed.
She smiled, thinking of the one other person who might be up and working at this moment.
Luka, her new friend she’d met at Talia’s house, often was up around the same time. If he saw her online, he often sent over a chat message. Even though they’d only known each other a few days, she felt he was someone she could really understand.
Like her, he had an insatiable hunger for knowledge and learning, and like her, his friends all seemed more focused on who they could fuck than what was happening in the world around them.
Not that Iris didn’t value romance; it was just that she had bigger things on her plate.
She swiped her key card, exactly like the other key cards issued throughout the department, and stepped into her darkened lab, noting the familiar desks and equipment.
However, even in the darkness, something wasn’t right. Things looked… messy. She looked over at the light switch, regretting that it was at least ten feet from the door, and wondered if it was even a good idea to click it.
It felt like someone had been in here, and maybe, if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, someone still was.
She could just make out a vague shadow across the lab, though it wasn’t moving now. As a chill wriggled up her spine, Iris crept slowly along the wall to reach the light switch, regretting that florescent lights always took a few seconds to blink on.
She had almost reached the light switch, her fingertips about to grasp it, when she heard something crash over, and the shadow in the darkness moved.
And fast.
Almost too fast for her eyes to follow as she stared at the person while still fumbling for the light switch. As whoever it was ran past her, the lights flickered, and her eyes fought to adjust.
The lights finally came all the way on just as the shadowy figure disappeared out the lab door and ran down the hallway.
Iris cursed herself for not shutting the door to keep the suspect from escaping, but she quickly realized how dangerous of an idea that would have been. She could still try to chase the person, but they were definitely a lot bigger than her, and it wouldn’t take much to overpower her.
She was a small, short woman, stronger in her mind than her muscles. So instead, she quickly moved in front of the door, closed it, and threw down the deadbolt. Then she let out a sigh of relief, sinking back against the door.
She pulled out her phone, knowing she should call someone. She could call her family, but they lived several states over, and even if they were worried, there wasn’t much they could do.
She could call the police, but they might ransack her lab and cause damage. She didn’t think the intruder had meant her any harm, based on the way they ran. She didn’t want to be alone in the lab as she tried to figure out what had been taken, but she wasn’t sure who to call.
Her eyes flicked to the lab computer, which was off. Still, she knew if she turned it on, she would likely get a message from Luka. He would still be online. Would he come over, even though they barely knew each other? It was a big ask.
She walked over to the computer and booted it up and then sat down and loaded up her email. Sure enough, as soon as her chat icon went green, indicating she was online, she saw a pop-up window from Luka. His username was SmartDragon, which she guessed was some kind of fantasy nerd reference.
Staying at Talia’s with his friends, he probably had seen all kinds of weird shows and movies.
She opened the window to see his message.
SmartDragon: What’s up? You’re up late tonight.
She bit her lip, formulating her reply.
Irislab: Yeah, um, someone broke in here.
There was a pause, with a few ellipses showing that Luka was typing.
SmartDragon: You’re in the lab right now?
Irislab: Yes.
SmartDragon: I’m headed over.
Irislab: You don’t have to. I just… didn’t know who to tell.
SmartDragon: I’m on my way. Which number is your lab again?
Irislab: 303
SmartDragon: Be there in ten. Maybe faster.
And then the window closed.
Well, that had gone easier than expected, Iris thought as she slumped back in her chair with a sigh. She hadn’t even had to ask before he offered. Maybe he was just bored, but it also could be he was a good person.
Or he just wanted an excuse to get out of the house, since his roommates had recently hooked up and apparently were going at it at all times, morning or night.
Iris understood what it was like to see everyone else move on without you. Her whole life, she’d seen people get married, have kids, and basically forget she existed, while she worked away in her lab.
It wasn’t that she liked being lonely or thought work was the only worthwhile pursuit. She simply hadn’t found the right person.
She wasn’t old yet, of course, but now that even her friends at the university had found love, she was feeling a little out of place about it.
Should she be making more of an effort to find someone, even though most of the time, she was happy alone?
Maybe she would reconsider it once she made tenure.
Her phone buzzed quicker than she thought it would, indicating that Luka was outside the lab door. She got up, her body feeling slightly achy from the tension and adrenaline of a few moments ago, and looked through a peephole to make sure it was Luka before she opened the door.
When she saw it was him, she sighed in relief and pulled the heavy steel door open.
As Luka walked in, she thought it was a good thing he was pretty recognizable, even through a shitty peephole.
He was tall, several inches over six feet, with a naturally muscled body that looked more crafted by genetics than the gym. Though, she had no doubt he went, considering the sheer size of him and the way his broad shoulders tapered to a trim waist.
He was wearing a trench coat over a tee shirt and pajama pants, and she laughed when she realized it was a woman’s coat, probably Chelle’s, and was about a foot too short for his arms and practically tearing across his shoulders.
She reached up to pull the coat down as he struggled out as well.
“I was in too much of a rush, I guess,” Luka said, finally getting his large hands free of the sleeves. He shook himself off and took her by the arms, giving her a long, slow once-over that left her weak in the knees.
Or maybe she was already weak in the knees from the break-in.
“You’re okay?” Luka asked nervously.
She nodded, pulling out of his grasp awkwardly. He had dark hair, longer on the top and shorter on the sides, a rich chocolatey brown color that was a striking contrast to his icy-blue eyes.
They looked almost supernatural, the way they were almost white with just the slightest hint of blue and gray. His long, dark lashes shadowed them, taking away a little of the impact and making them look a little darker, a little grayer.
The color of an icy lake on a cloudy day.
Beneath the eyes was a perfectly straight, slightly long nose, then full lips and a strong chin with a little dimple that just accentuated his unique handsomeness. And finally, a hard, masculine jawline that belonged on a magazine cover.
He looked over the lab. “How did you know someone was in here?”
“I saw them run out when I was trying to get to the light switch. At least, I think so. They were in shadow, so it’s hard to say. No, I definitely heard someone run by.”
Luka frowned, walking past her into the main area of the lab where her equipment and microscopes were kept. Using fluid movements, the big man checked under tables, opened fridges, and in general, patrolled the perimeter before he decided that everything would be fine.
“You can come see if anything is missing. Whoever you saw leaving must have been the only one,” he called back to her, running a hand through his thick hair.
For just a second, she wanted to do that, too. Then she snapped back to the present.
“Right, of course. I’ll look around.” She went to the fridge first, eager to check her samples that were most important for her research. She’d been cultivating them for weeks, and if something had happened to them… Her heart pounded as she entered the walk-in fridge, praying they hadn’t been touched.
Now that she co
Either that or someone had stolen one of those cards.
But on the other hand, who else would want to stop her from doing research? If she got tenure, that meant someone else would miss out on that spot. And as a woman who was younger than many of the other professors, she knew she had a target on her back.
But when she examined all the shelves with her samples, she saw that nothing at all was gone. She scratched her head, looking at samples from some of her side projects, and saw nothing gone there either.
Feeling confused, she closed the fridge and walked to her microscopes and important equipment. Though some of them had been moved around and some drawers were rummaged in, she didn’t see anything taken.
“That’s funny,” she said, putting her hands on her hips as she stepped back to survey the whole scene. All in all, she couldn’t see anything amiss, other than the disorder. “I don’t know what they want.”
Luka walked over to stand beside her, making her oddly aware of his tall presence, his clean, wintery scent. Pine and icy springs. “Perhaps they weren’t able to find what they were looking for before you interrupted them.”
She nodded, taking a seat in a rolling chair and pushing one toward him with a deft kick of her foot. He sat down in it smoothly and faced her with folded arms, an expression of consternation on his face.
“Why would someone break in here?” He cocked his head. “You said they ran past you?”
She nodded.
“Then they didn’t mean you any harm,” he said, looking relieved but even more puzzled. “Can you think of anything they’d want to take?”
She walked over to the door, wanting to check something. No sign of forced entry. “I mean, given that it was someone who probably had access, I would think they were trying to sabotage my tenure project so that I wouldn’t get the job.”
“Tenure?”
“It means I have a secure future at the university,” she said with a shrug. “It’s pretty much all any professor wants.”
“So you teach classes?”
“When I have to, but I prefer to do my research and publish for grants.”
“I see,” Luka said thoughtfully. “So you think it could be one of these professors?”
She let out a sigh of relief, thinking of the entire lot of them and realizing not one was very intimidating. She didn’t like that anyone had broken into her lab, but if it was one of them, she didn’t think she’d have much problem confronting them if she needed to.
“I can tell by the look on your face that you’re thinking something stupid,” Luka said mildly. “Stop it.”
She jerked up to look at him. “What? Why would you say that? I’ll have you know, I’m a foremost mind in my field, and—”
He sat back, lifting one leg to cross an ankle over his knee. “You looked complacent, like there was nothing to worry about. Given what could have happened tonight, I find that stupid.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “Well, it’s just that I was thinking of all the possibilities of who it could be, and none of them are very intimidating.”
“They are men?”
She nodded.
“Then you don’t know what is in their hearts. From my experience, men in this time are quite… unpredictable.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “In this time?”
Luka nodded. “Wait, has Talia not told you?”
“Told me what?”
Luka shoved his hands in his pajama pockets. “Never mind, then.”
“Wait, what?” Iris rubbed her temples. “Am I missing something?” Maybe it was just the stress of the night or being up late so many nights in a row, but she was just too tired to understand what Luka was getting at.
“Sorry, I said that wrong. Basically, what I meant was I don’t think you should let your guard down.”
Iris slumped with a sigh, putting both hands up in defeat. “What do you expect me to do, then, call the police? If they come in and mess with any of my samples, I’m going to miss my symposium. I’m going to lose everything.”
“This tenured position is everything?”
Her eyes shuttered momentarily. “For now, it is.”
Luka nodded. “Then you should have me with you when you’re in your lab alone.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “I can’t ask you to do that. It would be boring, and—”
Luka shook his head. “You’re Chelle’s friend. I’m Chelle’s friend. I owe it to her to keep you safe.”
She quirked a smile. “Or you just want to get out of that house, since they’re knocking boots all the time and making all sorts of ruckus.”
Luka hesitated, then nodded. He was pretty straightforward, and she liked that about him. “So what do you think?”
She sighed. “I mean, I have no choice but to take you up on it. You can use the lab computer, I guess. Still, I feel like I owe you.”
“You can repay me with a date,” he said, almost too casually, as a muscle twitched in his jaw.
She stared at him in surprise. “Why would you want to do that?”
He shifted his weight, hands still in his pockets. “Like you said, I’m bored. Take me out somewhere. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
Her eyes trailed up his long body, lingering on long legs, muscled arms. That gorgeous face. Yeah, hanging out with him wouldn’t be any trial for her. Sometimes she got lonely, too.
“Deal,” she said, walking over and reaching a hand out to him, both to shake it and seal their bargain and to help him up out of his chair.
He stood, letting very little of his weight rely on her hand. His palm felt so large and warm in hers, and she was reluctant to release it, until he looked down at their hands with a curious expression.
She quickly dropped his hand and rummaged for her keys, making sure she hadn’t dropped them in her shock. When she found them, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Shall we go? I’m too out of it to get anything done now anyway.”
He nodded, putting out his arm. “I’m walking you home, of course.”
“Of course,” she said with a laugh, placing her hand around his bicep, trying not to think about how warm and strong it felt. How nice his masculine stability felt after a night like tonight.
How hard it would be to work in close quarters with him without wanting to see under his clothing.
As they left, she scooped up Chelle’s coat, but didn’t hand it over to Luka when he reached for it.
“Nope,” Iris said. “I know it’s going to be cold for a minute, but I can’t let you break Chelle’s coat. That’s if we could even get you out of it next time.”
Luka laughed at that, a deep, rich sound. “It’s fine. I don’t mind the cold. Which way is your apartment?”
She pointed, and he led the way out into the snowy night.
Chapter 2
When Luka got home after dropping off Iris, the protective dragon inside him was still pacing.
It was odd to feel so protective of someone. He hadn’t felt it that strongly for anyone other than Alek and Dmitri, and that was because he had spent his whole life at their sides.
Alek had been destined to rule since they were little, though they both came from royal families, and Luka was technically one of Alek’s cousins and had been picked when young to serve as his mentor.
Dmitri had been assigned as bodyguard, but Luka was still a powerful dragon like both of his friends and fought as was necessary.
He’d almost gotten in a fight just a few days ago when he’d thought Dmitri was being threatened by a rival dragon. Things had worked out there, but ever since, Luka had been more and more focused on trying to find out about other shifters in their world.
He didn’t want any more surprises.
He liked Iris. He had hung out with her the night that Dmitri and Chelle had worked things out, and he’d found a kindred spirit in her. Someone with a keen mind who cared about facts as much as he did.
